time trialists and managed an 18th place ride with 39'22". Shortly thereafter came and , who posted successive best times at the first intermediate time check. had the best time at the finish line, stopping the clock in 36'56", leading to speculation over whether Jens Voigt would take the race leadership. Though was eight seconds off 's pace at the first time check and gradually faded further, they rode a very strong final and put the next pink jersey on their star time trialist Serhiy Honchar. They finished only one second worse than at the finish line. and were the last teams on the course. 's squad wasn't nearly as strong as it had been in the 2005 Tour de France when they were stage winners who handily defeated every team but , though they still managed third on the day with 37'25". never stood much chance of retaining the jersey, though their sixth-place ride in 37'59" was better than pre-stage expectations. Stage 6 12 May 2006 — Busseto to Forlì This stage was very flat, heading on straight roads southeast through the region of Emilia-Romagna. It was the first time the Giro had come to Forlì in 29 years, with a stage that stood to favor the sprinters. Though the peloton first seemed to want to keep Sergiy Matveyev, Christophe Edaleine, and Andoni Aranaga from breaking away after just , the trio fought through the counter-attacks and became the day's signature escape. Their biggest advantage of the day was 6'14", at the intermediate sprint in Rio Saliceto. led the chase, with double stage winner Robbie McEwen in mind. The course's perfectly flat terrain meant that it was exceedingly unlikely that the break would stay away to the finish. joined the chase, and by to go the time gap was just 40 seconds. The peloton thus stood the risk of catching them too soon, which would leave open the possibility for counter-attacks when the catch occurred. The trio's lead grew a little for the next several kilometers until they were at last brought back with left in the stage. Several teams tried to control the field in the run in to the finish, with their various sprinters in mind. 's Tomas Vaitkus flew out of the main field with left, followed closely by McEwen and Olaf Pollack. Pollack later described that his primary leadout man André Korff had crashed about